Amidst more pressing matters such as elections, local media have recently ballyhooed the extension of the innovative, state-owned, Mi Bici rent-a-bike system into centro or “downtown” Zapopan. (Downtown is in quotation marks because the bustling area near the famed Basilica of the Virgin of Zapopan on the north fringe of Guadalajara lacks tall buildings, except for the basilica, and maintains the charm of a smaller pueblo, even though Zapopan is a sprawling suburb that almost encircles Guadalajara and helps account for one-third of the metropolitan area’s population of nearly 4.5 million.)

The state’s charity watchdog, the Instituto Jalisciense de Asistencia Social (IJAS), has launched its annual altruism prize to highlight organizations that are doing stellar work in their respective fields, as well as provide them with a cash stimulus.

The four leading candidates for mayor of Guadalajara took part in a lively debate Wednesday in the regal surroundings of the Universidad de Guadalajara Paraninfo. In front of a majestic backdrop – Jose Clemente Oroozc’s mural ‘El pueblo y sus falsos líderes’ (The people and their false leaders) – the candidates talked up their somewhat similar platforms, outlining the need for greater community policing, transparency in government and the obligation to invest in non-motorized transportation. Polls suggest Enrique Alfaro of the Citizens Movement (MC) and Ricardo Villanueva of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) are running neck and neck. The Guadalajara mayor’s job is the most coveted in all Mexico and often a fast-track route to the governor’s chair.

I doubt even contemporary dance naysayers could fail to be mesmerized by the inventiveness and physical versatility of British dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra, whose double bill of “Murmur” and “Inked” opened the Festival Cultural de Mayo at Guadalajara’s Teatro Degollado last weekend.

Chapala’s police force, the municipal Civil Protection crew and the local division of the state Traffic Department maintained tight vigilance on election day to maintain peace and order among an impassioned electorate.

Every Mexican town has a street named after Pedro Moreno, a hero of the Independence War of the early 1800s. Years ago I read about Moreno’s defense of a fortress he had built on top of a mountain called El Sombrero, in a wilderness area in Los Altos de Jalisco.